Limbo of the Lost
Retail Limbo of the Lost received two separate retail releases -- one from G2 games online in Europe in 2007, and another from Tri-Synergy in North America in 2008. Both releases were extremely small, making this game very rare in both retail formats. The game was originally developed for the Amiga, but by the time the project was completed by the three man team, the Amiga was a dead platform. It was resurrected again in 2006 by the same three guys. Plot Limbo of the Lost is a point-and-click Graphical Adventure Game. Players direct the controllable character around the game world by clicking with the computer mouse to interact with objects and characters in the game world. Limbo of the Lost follows Captain Benjamin Briggs, the real life captain of the Mary Celeste. In 1872 the Mary Celeste was discovered empty, the fate of Briggs and the rest of the crew remains a mystery. The game puts Briggs in Limbo where he has to aid Destiny in a war against Fate. Ending The ending to Limbo of the Lost has become infamous for its...well...ummm...just watch it. URcvdDtnM_0 Gameplay The gameplay in LotL is of the pixel-hunting and ridiculously illogical inventory puzzle variety perfected by games such as Gabriel Knight 3 with its infamous cat hair puzzle. Below are a few examples of the pixel-hunting and puzzle insanity taken from the full playthrough at rpg.net. Pixel Hunting LotL commonly requires the player to interact with an object that is so dark onscreen that it cannot been seen. In order to progress, the player must move the cursor back and forth across the screen until they see text pop up that tells them that there is something they can interact with. In the following example, the player must find an object in this scene. It turns out to be a 1 PIXEL TALL piece of wood on the desk to the right. Another fine example of pixel-hunting has the player trying to find something in the following image: That's right -- you're supposed to find a torn piece of cloth hiding to the left of the frame. Illogical Puzzles Most of LotL's puzzels require the player to combine items in their inventory to make new items. The logic of combining these items, however, is questionable. One such combination requires the player to place a worm in a flask of water to create Tequila. Another, more complex sequence is described below: In one of the game's more illogical sequences, the player must steal a vial with a glowing, green soul in it. It is the Soul of a Warrior in the image below: They find a matching vial, which is, incidentally green in hue. They fill it with water. Disconcertingly, the water glows like blue paint through the green glass. In order to get the water to turn green, the player must mix it with saffron. After which it becomes green. Obviously, the designer's logic was that water is blue. Blue + Yellow = Green. Thus, Saffron + Water = Green. This is complete insanity on many levels: * Water is clear, not blue. * The bottle is green, so clear water in a green bottle would look green to begin with. * Water is not blue! * Mixing saffron in water results in yellow water. * WATER IS NOT BLUE!!! * Most people don't know what saffron IS, let alone what color it turns things! This is only one example among many of the joys that await the player in LotL. Reviews Limbo of the Lost received only a tiny release from both G2 Games and Tri Synergy. Few gaming sites would have ever reviewed it had the plagiarism controversy not occurred and it would have likely disappeared without notice. As it is, there was only one major review for the game before the controversy began, so, thus, there is arguably little in the way of unbiased reviews out there. Professional Just Adventure reviewed the game first, before any plagiarism was uncovered. Their review is reasonably kind, though somewhat confused as the reviewer writes, "...this became the most complicated review I’ve ever written." and goes on to talk about how the graphics and gameplay are a "mixed bag" and that "All of the chapters though feel as though they have been created by different people. This results to some chapters being absolutely excellent, especially 3 and 5, while others are of an inferior level, especially chapter 2." The reviewer goes on to talk about problems such as "extreme pixel-hunting" but ultimately decides that LotL is "...a good adventure game, fun to play, with a few frustrations here and there, but certainly well worth your time." Reviews for Limbo of the Lost following the controversy are universally negative, but perhaps not undeservedly so. The reviewers primarily cite gameplay defects and not plagiarism for their low scores. A review from Boomtown and a review by U.K. games journalist Richard Cobbett mention defects such as: * Interminably long, unskippable dialogue sequences with no player interaction * Difficult-to-find items (pixel-hunting) * Illogical puzzles * Awful voice-acting * Poorly-mixed sound (making characters hard to hear) * Extremely slow walk speed * Uninteresting story * Humor that falls flat GameBoomers Scandal Gameboomers was to publish a review, but before they could do so, things got ugly (Taken from a Quarter to Three thread): "Apparently, the developer has been pretending to be a player of the game on various adventure forums telling everyone how incredible the game is. Then he sent a review copy to one of them, and the reviewer helped out someone who was stuck in it. Then the developer pretending to be a player started ripping into the reviewer for letting hints out, and then posted as himself, the developer, supporting himself pretending to be a player. Then... they figured out the "player" and the "developer" were the same person by seeing that their IPs were the same... so the developer said that it was a beta tester and posted as a player without his knowledge. At another forum, the developer tried to do the same thing, got called out, and then the "beta tester" said that he was actually the developer's daughter. Confused? This is so awesome. Links to the forum postings if anyone wants to have a laugh: http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubb...233736&fpart=5 http://justadventure.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1196172821/0 The players: FABLE = The developer pretending to be a player, a beta tester, or his own daughter MSSTUDIOS = The developer responding to himself pretending to be a player, a beta tester or his own daughter." Community Readers curious for a more in-depth review of the game can view a complete walkthrough of the game at rpg.net. It is also worth noting that in October, 2007, a customer review of LotL appeared on amazon.co.uk stating: 5.0 out of 5 stars Cool game, and I have only played the demo!, 10 Oct 2007 By: Simon "sorcerer" (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME) Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars Graphics: Wow really good, excellent atmosphere, the main character knocking on the screen to get your attention is brilliant!! Sound: Music is really good and better than most games, keeps a theme throughout Movement/Interface: The game flows very well and feels very easy and natural to manipulate, great use of the interface - OUIJA BOARD. Hope this is used again on other games from Majestic. Puzzles: Mostly Inventory based, but still very good, all keep to the macarbre feel of the game. NPC'S: The characters in the game are a joy to watch and listen to, with near on perfect lip synching and great closeup views when they talk I could not wait to meet another creature or character. Overall: Great game that deserves to do well, destined to become a classic of the genre! deffinately on my TO BUY list! All I hope is that there is more to come, a sequel maybe? come on MAJESTIC!!! This review is believed to have been posted by Steve Bovis himself. The elements that the reviewer refers to as being high points of the game are generally things that other reviewers complained about. These include the Ouija Board (which has a slow, irritating animation every time you open it to interact with anything), the inventory puzzles (extremely illogical), character knocking on the screen (pointed out by Richard Cobbett's review as being extremely irritating), character close-up (the player spends half the game looking straight up the nose of the character they're talking to), and lip syncing (very poorly executed). In addition, this review was posted before the game came out and it references a "demo" that was never released to the public. Finally, the reviewer appears to have never written any other reviews on Amazon, so it is likely that this account was created expressly to post this review. Sequel A sequel was planned for LotL. As per the second part of the ending cinematic to LotL, the title was to be Limbo of the Lost II: Flight to Freedom In a post on the Wintermute engine forums, Steve Bovis advertised for a background artist for the sequel -- implying that the next game was to have legit art for the backgrounds. Why he didn't do this for the first game is anyone's guess. O1cRUEjpQbI